Our guest is author, realtor and successful business
woman Jean Burgdorff. Jean is author of the book, "It's
Not The Money - How I Built a $2 Billion Real Estate
Business Based on the Golden Rule." Jean will explain
how living and running her business according to the
Golden Rule has made her successful and her life
fulfilled.

This book includes some select thoughts on success, and, of
course, the world offers thousands of recipes for it. Many
prescriptions are very goal oriented, and maybe that works for
some people. But not for me--I never set out with real estate as
a career goal, nor with a monetary target of building a company
toward $2 billion in sales, beginning in my rec-room.

Maybe you can see patterns in my experience in the pages you've
read. You might ask: "Jean's life has been abundant--but how
about luck?" My answer is in the truism: Luck is when
preparation meets opportunity. And my main preparation has been
(and is) the Golden Rule. That's the pattern.

I think the Golden Rule demands trust, and trust is very
difficult to define, but you always know when you have it. My
trust has always been in God--Love, Truth, Principle-that's
something I really know.

In my life in real estate, I have trusted God for everything.
Absolutely everything. And when I speak of trust in God, I mean
trust in truth, and honesty, and integrity; trust in love
through compassion and unselfishness; trust in the divine Mind
as the source of all intelligence.

Others have put forth useful corollaries to the Golden Rule
better than I could have, so I hope you have enjoyed what I
collected, alongside the experiences which show the pattern. And
I'm not done yet!

If I had to put it on the back-of-my-business card, here's
what's been useful to me as Life Laws:

It's a little hard to write a book about a successful life and
be humble. But I feel success comes from a willingness to turn
to a higher source in a childlike way. I hope some of my
experiences at least illustrate that these precepts work, and
can for anybody.

Jean and Doug Burgdorff started Burgdorff Realtors® in 1958 in
Murray Hill, New Jersey, and it grew to over 30 offices and $2
billion in sales as well as becoming the #1 ERA franchise in the
world. Jean continued to build the business after Doug's passing
in the 1970s and sold it twice, once in 1986 and again in 1996
after re-purchase in 1991. In addition Jean co-purchased and
continues as vice-president of another multi-office ERA Showcase
Properties franchise in Florida. In this biography, she also
explains the how and why of recruiting and retaining real estate
salespeople who become loyal over the long term.